I want to tell you about the land of Ryazan, the Meshchersky region, which is rich in beauty and antiquity.
From Moscow to Ryazan on different roads and different estimates from 170 to 198 km.
I lived in the Lovech Hotel (as it is written in the Petit Futet guide – the main hotel of the city)! :-))) It has become even more modern (I already stayed there three years ago): Wi-Fi (wireless Internet) was added to the key in the form of a magnetic plastic card throughout the entire hotel (albeit with steep prices - 200 rubles per hour! ). But there is an Internet cafe on the 7th floor (50 rubles for 5 MB: approximately 40-60 minutes).
In the lobby above the elevators there are three clocks showing the time in Moscow, London and New York!
The cheapest single room (economy class) costs 1,300 rubles. The buffet breakfast, included in the price, is surprisingly generous (from cereals, sprats, pickled tomatoes smaller than olives to canned pineapples and peaches)!
But the roads in Ryazan were terrible and still are - there are such potholes and potholes on the central streets of the city that you feel sorry for the car and after ten minutes of driving you want to get out and move on foot. And what is characteristic is that this phenomenon is historical, one might say traditional; back at the end of the 19th century, local journalists wrote about Ilyinskaya Square (now Cathedral Square) that it was intended “to break the philistine feet... has not been repaired or swept since Tatar invasion…»! :-)))
By quality of roads Ryazan Oblast ranks third in the country from the bottom!
The Ryazan region includes 25 districts, 4 cities of regional subordination: Ryazan, Kasimov, Sasovo, Skopin and 8 cities of regional subordination: Korablino, Mikhailov, Novomichurinsk, Rybnoye, Ryazhsk, Spas-Klepiki, Spassk-Ryazansky and Shatsk.
As of February 1, 2008, the population of the region was 1 million 163.6 thousand people. And it is constantly decreasing, since the number of deaths is 2.2 times higher than the number of births.
The area of the Ryazan region is 39.6 thousand square meters. km, which is slightly less than Switzerland, but a third more than Belgium (and 6.5 times less than the Anadyr region of Chukotka)!
Currently, 510.8 thousand residents live in Ryazan.
There are several hypotheses about the origin of the word Ryazan: 1. From the name of the Mordovian Erzya tribe. 2. From the word “rezan” - this is the name of the pieces into which Arab dirhams were divided, which were in use in trade with Arab merchants. 3. From the word “cut”, because the Vyatichi who lived here were cut off from other principalities on the one hand by hordes of nomads, on the other by forests.
By far the most significant place in the city is the Kremlin. Entrance to its territory is free. The Kremlin is divided into two parts: the larger one belongs to the Ryazan Kremlin museum-reserve, the smaller one belongs to the active Spassky Monastery (enclosed powerful walls with towers). Unfortunately, the museum administration and the diocese still cannot reach agreement on the issue of dividing the monuments. :-(
The Nativity Cathedral is the oldest stone structure Kremlin and dates back to the 15th century. Initially it was called Uspensky, then Old Uspensky, and finally in the 18th century it received its current name. Rebuilt many times. The cathedral contains the relics of a huge number of saints and even Ilya Muromets! I attended the service on Easter night.
The Archangel Cathedral was also built in the 15th century. It was the prince's house church and the burial vault of bishops. It burned several times and was restored again. Now the cathedral hosts an exhibition dedicated to ancient Russian art.
The Assumption Cathedral is very beautiful and is considered the most significant work of “Naryshkin (Moscow) baroque” architecture. Is an object cultural heritage federal significance. For its construction, the famous design of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin was used (which, in turn, was based on the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir!). Built by the famous Russian architect Yakov Bukhvostov. It was built over 6 years - from 1693 to 1699. Although it should be noted that the very first construction began back in 1648. Then in 1687 the builders changed. And in 1692, the almost completed cathedral collapsed.
The cathedral has a unique 25-meter iconostasis of 7 rows of icons, total number 155! Unfortunately, the cathedral is only open in the summer and I was not able to see the iconostasis. :-(
The Church of the Holy Spirit was built in 1642 - the only building that has survived from the Dukhovsky Monastery, founded in the 15th century.
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral was built in 1702. It houses state archive Ryazan region.
There is also a very elegant five-domed Epiphany Church, built in the mid-17th century. It houses the archives of the Civil Registry Office.
The Kurgan Bell Tower is the latest building of the Kremlin: it was erected from 1789 to 1840. Architects changed like gloves - Vorotilov S.A., Ruska L.I., Bindeman, Visconti and Ton proposed their projects; the final project was presented by the Ryazan governor N.I. Voronikhin himself, funding was periodically suspended. The height of the bell tower is 83.2 meters, the length of the spire is 25 meters. The third tier is equipped Observation deck, which offers a beautiful view of the Kremlin and Ryazan.
The Bishop's Palace, also known as Oleg's Palace (once the wooden palace in which Prince Oleg Ivanovich Ryazansky lived was located on this site), was built in the 17th century. This is the largest building in the Kremlin. Now there is a historical exhibition of the museum-reserve, which houses the chain mail of Prince Oleg and the staff of Peresvet (I’ll tell you about it below).
The singing building was built in 1658. It got its name because of the performances that the singers held here.
In the Kremlin there is also a hotel for the nobility (the theological seminary is located here), a hotel for the mob (exhibition halls and museum storage), a house for parables, stables, a carriage house, a consistory building, a barn, a forge, and a cooperage.
From Petrova Street, next to the Kremlin, there is a beautiful view of the Kremlin, the Trubezh River and the surrounding area. There is also a very beautiful (already almost completely restored) Spaso-Yarskaya Church. Nearby, perhaps, the most beloved monument to Sergei Yesenin by the townspeople is a must-visit place for all newlyweds. This fall (October 2) the monument will turn 33 years old. Yesenin is depicted as if buried to the waist, with a mournful look and arms spread out (people like to climb and sit on the right one).
I never tire of being amazed at how strong the Russian people are at making up their minds! In almost any city, monuments are overgrown with everyday stories and funny remarks are put into the mouths of the depicted heroes! In Ryazan they came up with the following. On Lenin Street there was a monument to Academician Pavlov, in whose mouth they put the phrase: “Well, Seryozha, how about a little?”, and Yesenin seemed to answer him: “So there’s nothing!” – the poses of both monuments are very consistent with such a dialogue (Pavlov’s right arm is energetically bent at the elbow, Yesenin’s arms are spread to the sides)! :-)))))))))))
I went to the regional art museum named after. Pozhalostina I.P. (57 Svobody St.) – founded in March 1913. It has a very rich collection of paintings, which includes paintings by almost all famous domestic artists (Repin, Shishkin, Savrasov, Levitan, Surikov, Aivazovsky, the Makovsky brothers, Serov, Kramskoy, Tropinin, Korovin, Malyavin, Kustodiev, Saryan, Venetsianov, Perov and others ). There is even a painting by Jan Simon Peynas (c. 1583–1631) “The Prophet Elisha and the General Naaman,” who is considered Rembrandt’s teacher!
A separate exhibition of the museum is dedicated to icons (XVI-XIX centuries). One of the most ancient is the carved icon “Archangel Michael” (early 16th century) from the Church of the Intercession in the village of Putyatin, Sapozhkovsky district Ryazan province. An extremely laconic, devoid of signs of naturalism, the austere figure of the archangel in armor, with a sword, with outstretched wings and a red cloak is inscribed in an ark with a complex profile. Until now, the relief depicting the Archangel Michael occupies a very special place in the art of the Ryazan region, and not only that. As far as we know, researchers have not yet identified a single carved icon on this topic.
There are also many pieces of sculpture; amazingly beautiful pieces of furniture and porcelain are on display (the Meissen one is especially striking).
A funny moment: when I arrived (alone, unaccompanied), the only visitors to the museum were a lady and a teenager, who soon left. I wandered through the halls for about two hours, and during this time there were no more visitors (but there is a caretaker in each hall!). So, after an hour and a half, the director appeared, who at first simply watched me, talking with the caretakers, and then could not stand it, came up to me and with an apology characteristic of certainly cultured person, asked where I was from. I said that I was from Moscow. He said that he drew attention to me because I was looking too closely at the paintings. I immediately explained that I am not some kind of specialist or expert, but just look for myself, what is called “for the soul.” He said that he was very pleased and invited me to visit them again. It felt so nice... :-))))
Visited the museum-estate of Academician I.P. Pavlov. (Pavlova St., 25-27). A very interesting museum of an outstanding scientist Nobel laureate - I recommend it to everyone! In addition to the house in which the Pavlov family lived, there is another one, the exhibition in which tells about scientific activity Pavlov, called the House of Science.
IN last years Ryazan was enriched with two sculptural monuments of horse riders - Prince Oleg Ivanovich Ryazansky on Cathedral Square and Evpatiy Kolovrat at the intersection of Lenin and Svoboda streets.
On Seminarskaya Street I liked the building (house no. 15), which will soon be 100 years old. Previously, the Romanov School was located here, and now it is the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the Ryazan Pedagogical University.
On the opposite side of the street (Seminarskaya street, 22/6) there is a museum of the history of airborne troops - it is considered one of the most interesting museums in the city. Much to my regret, I didn’t get into it because it was closed for renovations. :-(
I really liked the building of the former Ryazan Theological School (Sobornaya St., 7), built in the mid-19th century. Now the lyceum is located here. Not only is it beautiful, it is also literally imbued with history: the already mentioned first Russian laureate studied here Nobel Prize Pavlov I.P., and much later - the famous Soviet poet Konstantin Simonov; taught by another Nobel laureate- Alexander Solzhenitsyn; N.K. Krupskaya performed.
There are many beautiful wooden houses in the city.
There is a regional drama theater in Ryazan, which dates back to 1787! The building, located on Teatralnaya Square, is very impressive and monumental; somehow it’s hard to believe that it was built only in 1961. I went to the play “The Fool” based on the play by Lope de Vega - I liked it. Compared to Moscow prices for theater tickets, they are given for free here - a ticket in the first row of the stalls costs 350 rubles!
I was very amused by one information road sign, which basically reports that roads to the right and left lead to dead ends, but for some reason the dead ends are marked different colors– one, as expected, is red, but the other is yellow! :-))) The version that it burned out in the sun does not stand up to criticism, because... in this case, both should have burned out. I showed a photo of this sign to the former head of the traffic police of the Ryazan region - he didn’t tell me anything shedding light on this mystery! :-)))))
I visited a small town in Russia - Kasimov. Population 33.9 thousand people. The distance from Ryazan is about 170 km (from Moscow about 280 km).
This city has a very interesting and rich history, which is only five years younger than Moscow (1152, by the way, like Kostroma)! He also owes his birth to the Suzdal prince Yuri Dolgoruky. It was then called Gorodets Meshchersky. In the 14th century, it, together with the Meshchera lands, became part of the Moscow possessions. In 1376, the Tatar-Mongols completely destroyed the city. The place chosen for the restoration of Gorodets was located slightly upstream of the Oka. It was then that it got another name - New Lower City (lower in relation to Moscow). This is where the current Kasimov stands. And it received this name in the 15th century in honor of the Tatar prince Kasim, who received it in 1452 from the Moscow prince Vasily II the Dark for providing military assistance in many battles, in particular against the khans of the Golden Horde. The area surrounding 200 miles around became the Kasimov Khanate, which was also called the Kasimov Kingdom.
It was quite unique. Firstly, unlike other Tatar khanates formed during the collapse of the Golden Horde, it was created by Moscow on its territory and was intended to protect the eastern borders of Rus'. Secondly, there was no dynasty of rulers here: they were all appointed and removed by the choice of Moscow sovereigns, based on political considerations.
At the same time, there was also a Russian town in Kasimov, ruled by a governor - there was a hut, a Pushkar courtyard, and a messenger courtyard. And since 1567, when Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible issued a charter to the residents of Kasimovskaya Yamskaya Sloboda, granting them self-government, a third, administrative part of the city was formed, directly subordinate to Moscow.
The Khanate was liquidated in 1681. Over the 229 years of its existence, 14 rulers from different Tatar dynasties were on the throne.
One of the most famous is Sain-Bulat, the great-grandson of the Khan of the Golden Horde Akhmat, who participated in almost all the military campaigns of Ivan the Terrible. In 1573, he converted to Christianity and was named Simeon Bekbulatovich. After baptism, he was deprived of the Kasimov kingdom, but Ivan the Terrible left him the royal title, and in 1575 Ivan the Terrible proclaimed him “Tsar and Grand Duke of All Rus',” as well as “Grand Duke of Tver.” Ivan the Terrible began to call himself “Ivan the Prince of Moscow” and “servant Ivashka.” Tsar Simeon, terrified of his unpredictable “subject,” did not dare to take a step without his sanction. All this, naturally, was nothing more than a political masquerade, and a year later Ivan the Terrible simply dismissed Simeon Bekbulatovich from his great reign and granted him an inheritance in Tver and named him Grand Duke of Tver.
In the center of the city on Sovetskaya Square stands the Ascension Cathedral, striking in its beauty. It was built in 1854-1862 according to the design of N.I. Voronikhin. (the one who built the Kurgan Bell Tower in the Ryazan Kremlin).
I visited the local history museum (the main exhibition is in the building on Cathedral Square, 7/8) and climbed the minaret of the old Tatar mosque (Victory Square, 8; there is a branch there - the ethnography of the Kasimov Tatars). This mosque was built in 1467 (!) under the first Khan Kasim. From that building, only the minaret and the foundation of the mosque have survived. The mosque itself XVIII century was very dilapidated and was dismantled. In 1768, responding to the petition, Catherine II ordered by decree “to build a mosque for the Tatars in that city for prayer...” and a new one-story mosque was built on the old foundation.
The high round minaret tower, built of roughly hewn stones, has an open area at the top, from where a beautiful panorama of Kasimov opens. It is opened to visitors only in the warm season (after May 9) after drying.
In Kasimov there are two preserved tombs (tekie), also called mausoleums, remarkable for their antiquity.
The tomb of Shah Ali Khan dates back to 1555 and is located in close proximity to the mosque. Shah Ali was also an assistant to Ivan the Terrible and took part in the campaign against Kazan. In 1552, he married Suimbek (Syuyum-Bika), the widow of the Kazan Khan Safa-Girey. According to legend, Suimbeka was an intelligent and unusually beautiful woman (but they say that this does not happen!). :-)))))) In Kazan she enjoyed love and fame. Shah Ali was fat and ugly in appearance, but had strength of character and nobility of soul. This marriage was concluded for political reasons and Ivan the Terrible was interested in it. Maybe this circumstance influenced the fact that the spouses did not love each other. There is a legend that Suimbeka tried to poison Shah Ali by giving him a shirt of her work and bread. But he, warned in advance about his wife’s evil intentions, ordered to put a shirt on the criminal and throw bread to the dog - before his eyes the criminal died and the dog died. Shah Ali remained alive, but Suimbeka had to languish in the palace of the Kasimov king. Shah Ali died in 1567 and was buried in a tomb that he had built for himself in advance. In addition to Shah-Ali, his beloved wife Bulak-Shad and his closest relatives are buried there. One slab is unnamed; According to legend, the khan, having buried Suimbeka, did not order her name to be written on the tombstone so that it would be erased from the memory of descendants.
The second tomb of Avgan Mohammed Sultan, the son of the Khan of Khiva, was built in 1648 at the Staroposad cemetery on the eastern outskirts of Kasimov.
Visited the samovar museum. It recently opened (September 16, 2007) and there is no mention of it in the guidebook. And the museum is wonderful. This private collection is the second largest in the country (and probably in the world). The museum exhibits 548 (!) samovars, and the entire collection numbers just over a thousand! In our country for a long time There was only one samovar museum in Tula. And now there are two of them; Moreover, the Kasimov collection is richer than the Tula one. By the way, there is another samovar museum in the world: it’s very difficult to guess where. In Iran!
The owner of the Kasimov collection, Mikhail Petrovich, has another one - bells, and plans to open another museum! It should be noted that Kasimov’s bells were famous in Rus' (now they would say they were a brand!) along with those from Valdai.
Kasimov is home to Europe's largest underground liquefied gas storage facility, owned by Gazprom - gas is pumped into natural voids where it is stored as a reserve.
I visited Mikhailov. Population – 19.1 thousand people. This is one of the oldest cities in Ryazan - according to legend, it was founded in 1137 by Prince Rurik Rostislavovich and named after his son Mikhail. It was first mentioned in chronicles in 1172. The secondary foundation dates back to 1551 - in the Nikon Chronicle there is the following entry: “In the same year - 1551 in the month of August, the Mikhailov city was erected on the Prona River, and the governors were Prince Alexander Ivanovich Vorotynsky, and Mikhail Petrov, son Golovin.”
Now the city is famous for its cement plant, the products of which were used in the construction of the Kashirskaya hydroelectric power station, the Moscow metro and the first nuclear power plants.
Near the village of Krasnoe there is an estate of the same name, which belonged to the favorite of Catherine II, Alexander Petrovich Ermolov (1754-1836). To the famous commander Ermolov A.P. he was a cousin. It is interesting because the architect was Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov, perhaps the greatest Russian architect. His creation, filled to the brim with romanticism, is immediately recognizable (especially after visiting the Tsaritsyn complex in Moscow)!
Now the Krasnoe estate is a courtyard of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery, surrounded by a fence, and a combination lock is installed on the entrance gate, so it will not be possible to get there without an agreement with the management.
Many thanks to Father Vladimir, who was very kind and gave us the tour. Wonderful man; smart, charming, modest and kind... Not only is he responsible for the entire church economy, he is also the director of a boarding school in Mikhailov, where he has about 90 children, for two dozen of whom he is the official guardian, i.e. . in fact, not only a spiritual father, but also a temporal father. This despite the fact that he has two children of his own, 3 and 4.5 years old.
The main attraction of the estate is, of course, the barnyard. What a fantasy game! An absolutely round toy fortress in a pseudo-Gothic style does not at all look like a “barnyard”. When you look at it, you can’t even believe that this is not Tsaritsino, but the distant outskirts of Ryazan: it is so magnificent. In 2005, its restoration began (almost completed, but some work still remains to be done. Now it is a monastery skete in which the monk Father Hermogenes lives. I visited it - looked at the internal house church, leafed through albums with photographs in the monastery library, had a meal in the refectory (drank tea with sweets).
There is also a very beautiful wooden holiday house in the courtyard, in which the rector of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery, Father Tikhon, stays during his visits.
But the Church of the Icon of the Kazan Mother of God, richly red in color with green domes, can be seen without difficulty (from the outside, of course, but inside only when there is a service in progress). According to legend, the temple was founded in 1785-1786 by Catherine II herself, who gave money for its construction (on its pediment there was previously an inscription “From the generosity of Catherine the Great” - I saw this in old photographs in albums in the monastery library). The inscription has not yet been restored. But the church was consecrated only in 1810. Presumably the project was developed by Bazhenov, but the construction was carried out by another architect who made his own changes. Since Bazhenov died in 1799, he could not supervise the construction. In the entire appearance of the temple, only the bell spans with built-in speakers remind of Bazhenov. So, it is possible that they used his project as a basis, but completely reworked it. Not only is the church quite strict, but it also has two bells, which is rare. Notre Dame Cathedral immediately comes to mind! :-))
Father Vladimir opened the temple and even allowed us to climb the bell tower. Inside there is a rather unusual iconostasis with an antique Greek style and marble columns - beautiful!
On the road from Spas-Klepikov to Kasimov there is the village of Gus-Zhelezny, and in it stands the Trinity Church, built of white stone and built in the first half of the 19th century, of amazing beauty and originality. The temple combines features of Baroque, Classicism and Gothic. The latter is especially striking, which is why many people assume that it is Catholic Church. There is an assumption that the author of this miracle was the same Vasily Bazhenov.
Pogost (Gusevsky or Gussky) is located 6 km from Gus-Zhelezny. Back in the 17th century, there were two wooden churches here. Now the St. Nicholas and Transfiguration churches have been preserved, as well as the bell tower, which I definitely recommend seeing - it is so charming and original. I admit honestly that I have not seen such beauty for a long time, and even in such an abandoned village. The bell tower is made in Baroque style; on the first tier there are eight figures of saints on the walls, and eight more are located on the border of the 2nd and 3rd tiers.
Klepikovsky district is the largest in area in the region. There are 52 lakes on its territory; The largest lake in the region is Velikoye. Another lake, Beloye, has a maximum depth of 80 meters! In general, there are about 750 lakes and 875 rivers and streams in the region.
The central estate is also located here. national park"Meshchersky". The park is located in the Klepikovsky and Ryazan districts. Meshchera is one of the most visited recreation areas in central Russia - and not for nothing, because the wealth of local forests, lakes and rivers with living creatures, fish, mushrooms and berries evokes very specific desires among hunters, fishermen and collectors of nature's gifts! :-))
The hunting industry here is not inferior to that of Zavidovo in the Moscow region (where Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev and other high-ranking officials of the state hunted); This is understandable, since it is headed by a person who went through the Zavidovo hunting school.
The city of Spas-Klepiki has only 12.9 thousand inhabitants. Received city status in 1920, but how locality The village of Klepiki has existed since the 16th century. The name comes from the Old Russian word klepik, which meant a knife (in another version - a wedge, a crutch).
The wonderful writer Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky has the following lines: “...Nothing - not the purple fire of the Aegean Sea, not the pinkish marble and scarlet oleanders of Hellas, not the blue fairy-tale air of Sicily, not the golden dim haze over the immortal Paris - nothing can dull our memory of his country, but, on the contrary, brings it to an almost painful acuteness. I experienced this myself when, in the foggy pre-autumn gardens of Versailles, with their foliage blackened like old gilding, with their geometric splendor, I - I don’t know why at all - remembered the tiny town of Spas-Klepiki, and my heart ached... I’m not afraid to admit that the poetry of a sleepy summer day in such a town was closer to my heart than the majestic desertion of the Versailles gardens...”
There is still a second-class teachers' school in the city, where Sergei Yesenin studied from 1909 to 1912.
Not far from Spas-Klepikov there is a museum of wooden architecture at a children's school, which teaches artistic woodworking. Alas, I didn’t have a chance to visit there (I just drove by), but a friend who had been there said that the children’s work was beyond childishly impressive! :-)))
I visited the urban village of Shilovo, located 100 km from Ryazan. The date of formation is considered to be 1388. The population is 16.2 thousand inhabitants, but they do not want to receive city status, so as not to lose benefits for rural settlements! :-)))
The village is quite clean, there are many flower beds, and it is not for nothing that in the competition for the cleanest settlement in the Ryazan region, it repeatedly became the winner (in 2003-2005 it took 1st place)!
As local resident T. Gracheva wrote:
My village is called Shilov.
Not rich, not famous, not great,
But, as we have been doing for a long time,
The spool is small but expensive.
In Shilovo there is a very beautiful Assumption Church of the 19th century.
Also in the village on Sovetskaya Square there is a monument to the legendary Russian hero Evpatiy Kolovrat, a native of these lands.
On Evpatiya Kolovrata Street there is an original arch with a sculptural composition suspended inside it.
There is even an Internet club in the village!
As always, Sberbank is different from everyone else, located in a nice brick building with a tower.
I visited the local history museum. The guide said that in this territory in the first millennium AD. the state of Artania was located, interesting because... almost nothing is known about it. Everyone who fell into it did not return alive. :-) Its existence is known from fragmentary information left by Arab travelers. The director of the museum has a very colorful appearance - a smooth skull, a large beard and glasses. It is clear that the man is in love with his work; Together with another equally obsessed employee (and also with a big beard!), he invited me to see the open-air exhibits, among which stands out the wave stone, which is about 350 million years old. The impression is that a small wave (more likely just a ripple on the water) has petrified! He said funny stories about this stone and the priest who got it somewhere.
Believe it or not, the village even has its own anthem, the author of the lyrics and music for which is V. Novoselova. It contains these lines:
And in Shilovo the people laugh more heartily,
The sky above us is getting higher and clearer.
Let the march about Shilov touch people's hearts
And it brings faith in the best for all people.
How nice it is that provincial towns and villages are being revived and there are still people in them who are making every effort to revive the original Russian traditions and not allow everything that our ancestors have created over the centuries to sink into eternity.
In the village of Sreznevo, not far from Shilov, Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky, a scientist, philologist, the first doctor of Slavic-Russian philology in Russia, rector of St. Petersburg University, from whom N.G. Chernyshevsky, N.A. Dobrolyubov, D.I. Pisarev studied, was buried.
On the territory of the Shilovsky district the most big number discovered ancient human sites. The region is the geographical center of the Ryazan region, as evidenced by a memorial sign with a tablet on a stone, installed near Shilovo.
In the village of Frolovo (along the highway to Ryazan, near the border with the Spassky district) a beautiful black marble stele was erected, again to Evpatiy Kolovrat. And next to it is a chapel. And in this village they installed a very funny pillar with indicators of directions and distances to different cities of the world, plus to the Moon and to the Sun!!!
I went to the city of Skopin, the date of its formation is considered to be 1597. Although there is an assumption that it is much older, since the “List of Russian cities far and near”, dating from 1387-1392, mentions the town of Lomikhvost. And this is exactly what the osprey was called (by the way, it is listed in the Red Book Russian Federation!) because when attacking a fish above the water it suddenly brakes and its tail seems to break. And archaeological research indicates that a settlement near Skopin existed already in the 12th century.
The population of Skopin is 31.3 thousand people. The distance from Ryazan is about 100 km.
The city is famous for its pottery industry, which dates back to 1640. I asked what was the reason for such an exact date. They explained that a local scientist, historian and local historian “unearthed” chronicles in which the first mention of the potter “Dyomka Kireyev’s son Bernikov” dates back to this year.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were 14 churches in Skopin - it was even called “Ryazan Suzdal”; now only three are functioning, and even those appearance You can’t call it anything other than deplorable. There were also 27 factories, or rather factories, because the number of workers in most of them, as a rule, was about fifty people. Among them there was even a bell factory, which cast small bells for churches and bells for horse harnesses.
There is an art ceramics factory in the city, which I was lucky enough to visit! There is a museum and a shop selling clay products at the factory. In the office of director Valentin Dmitrievich Telyshev, I counted 40 diplomas! I am very grateful to him and Nina Nikolaevna Kulakova for the tour of the factory and the opportunity to try to become a potter myself. Special thanks to the artist Natalya Viktorovna Godovikova for showing how, giving the opportunity and helping to mold a simple vase from clay on a pottery wheel. Having tried it, I can say that this is not as simple a matter as it seems at first glance! My vase was dried, fired and then given to me!
On the basis of the factory, once every two years, international festivals pottery art (three have already been held), which brings together pottery masters from all over Russia and neighboring countries.
Many wonderful artists work here, among whom are honored artists of the Russian Federation and State Prize laureates. Their works amaze with their originality and filigree of execution! They fulfill orders from different places, making products with the symbols of those who order.
I was given a table clock with the symbol of the city, an osprey bird, as a souvenir.
There are two museums in the city: local history and Russian pottery. The latter is located on the street. Lenina, 20 and opened on September 4, 2007 (therefore not yet noted in guidebooks) and today is the only one in Russia. The collection is represented by gifts to the museum from participants in the 3rd festival of pottery art and works by masters of the Skopin Art Ceramics Factory. For now, all the exhibits are housed in one room, but as the guide and curator Irina said, there are plans to expand and open another room.
And I arrived at the local history museum (Karl Marx St., 95 - a few meters from the pottery museum) at 16.45, when it was already closed, the alarm system was set (the museum is open until 17.00, the ticket office - until 16.30) and the staff, having dressed, was about to go home. Many thanks to acting. director Alexander Anatolyevich, who instantly took off his clothes without any extra persuasion and gave a wonderful (short, as he said!) excursion for a whole hour!
Visited monastery St. Demetrius of Thessalonica in Zarechny (formerly an independent village, now part of Skopin), located 17 km from the center of Skopin. According to legend, the monastery was founded by Dmitry Donskoy (at baptism he received the name in honor of Demetrius of Thessaloniki), who stopped here on his way back after the victory over Khan Mamai in 1380 and built a chapel on Demetrius Mountain. And now the most interesting fact, associated with this monastery: here was kept a staff made of apple wood (“Peresvet’s club”) of one of the heroes of the Battle of Kulikovo, monk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Alexander Peresvet, which he left here before the battle to one hermit! They say that under Peter I, many young nobles, entering the military service, tested their strength by lifting it. The staff was credited with healing powers for toothache, which is why its handle was chewed off. Now “Peresvet’s baton” is kept in the museum in the Ryazan Kremlin.
The monastic brethren here have always been small, as a rule, no more than 7-8 people (now even less). The abbot, Father Ambrose, was not there and Father Olympius gave a tour of the monastery. He showed both churches - the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica and the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh. The first one was built in the early 1760s and was rebuilt several times - all services are now carried out in it. The second one was built in 1770 and is still being renovated - it has not yet been consecrated, but it is much more interesting architecturally and more spacious inside. Father Olympius and I climbed the bell tower, built at the beginning of the 19th century, from where a beautiful view of the surrounding area opens up - the monastery is located on a hill and you can see all directions of the world. The passage with the stairs is very narrow and it will be difficult for people with large dimensions to squeeze into it. There are no bells yet (expensive), but they are being replaced by beaters. A bell is a rectangular plate of metal suspended on ropes, just like a bell. They are made in different sizes and thicknesses, and as a result, each one produces different sounds, by the way, the beauty of the sound is not inferior to bells.
There are a lot of beautiful blacksmith works in the monastery - the gate at the entrance, the stairs and decorations at the entrance to the bell tower and the Temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh (a very naturally made vine with bunches of grapes).
The town of Spassk-Ryazansky is located approximately 50 km from Ryazan. Opposite it, across the river, is an old settlement called Old Ryazan (we got there by ferry in cars). It was there that the city of Ryazan was previously located, founded according to legend by the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav Igorevich in 965-966 during his campaign against the Volga and Caspian Sea, when he freed the Slavs of Poochya from tribute to the Khazars. The fortress ramparts of the 10th century found during archaeological excavations confirm this version. But the first mention of Ryazan was in 1095 in the Tale of Bygone Years. Prince Oleg Svyatoslavovich, grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, after an unsuccessful internecine struggle with the princes, went to Ryazan for a while, where he built a fortress. Arab historians of the 11th century argued that after Kyiv and Novgorod, Ryazan was “the third center of the Russian land.”
Then it was called Pereslavl Ryazansky. And only when in 1237 Batu Khan burned the city to the ground and killed almost all the inhabitants, Ryazan settled where it is now. And archaeological excavations are carried out at the site every year. By some miracle, the remains of the city gate were preserved. Well, plus embankments - embankments. In general, the views of the area there are simply stunning. In Belinsky I.V. there are wonderful words about this very place: “What captivating and, one might say, the only views that Old Ryazan and its surroundings present. Imagine a high plain that ends in such a steep, inaccessible mountain that a walking person can barely climb it, and only in some places... If you stand on the mountain facing the Oka, then such a majestic and delightful sight will appear to your amazing eyes: the soles are steep, the fast Oka, covered with barges, proudly spreads under your feet; the low, almost level opposite shore with the Oka, yellow, sandy, like a boundless sea, is lost in its space and borders the horizon on the left side... Oh, with what delight, with what pride, standing on the aforementioned steepness, I surveyed these delightful views. These places deserve to have a capital city on them!”
The village of Spasskoye, which arose on the opposite bank of the Oka River, opposite Old Ryazan, until 1764 it was a serf and belonged to the Spas-Zarechensky Monastery. The village, which became rich, paid off the monastery for a lot of money and received the status of a city.
There is a local history museum in the city.
In the Spassky district there is the village of Izhevskoye, which is famous for the fact that this is how Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was born. There is also his museum here, which I, of course, visited (which is surprising - there is not a word in the guidebook about the village or the museum!). The museum houses the real Soyuz-22 descent module.
And Tsiolkovsky, it turns out, was not just a genius of his time; he was able to anticipate many things that became known after his death. For example, the invention of the autopilot and the hovercraft was his doing. Long before space flights, he said that inside spaceships weightlessness will reign! It gives!!! :-))) More precisely, alas, he did. :-(
The story of his life was very, very sad. At the age of ten, he suffered from scarlet fever and became almost completely deaf, which is why he initially failed to finish school. But the guy was persistent: he began self-education (already in Moscow - in the library, which now continues to proudly bear the name of Lenin) and subsequently passed the exam to become a mathematics teacher as an external student. And then he taught at the gymnasium for 12 years!!! And the children obeyed him unquestioningly, not allowing themselves to use the fact of his deafness for their own tricks and pranks. He had a lot of his own children, but there was also a problem: most of them died in childhood, and one daughter even at the age of 22; only two daughters remained. It’s interesting if Tsiolkovsky had not suffered such a terrible fate (deafness in at a young age), would he become so big?..
On the territory of the Spassky district there is the only reserve in the region - the Oksky State Natural Biosphere Reserve. It is one of the ten Russian nature reserves (out of 120) and was even awarded a diploma from the Council of Europe (only 4 Russian nature reserves and only 36 nature reserves in Europe have such a diploma; and if you consider that in England alone there are about 200 nature reserves, then you can evaluate this diploma by dignity). Created in 1938 with the main goal of preserving and increasing the number of muskrats (the Russian muskrat is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation).
The reserve has a wonderful nature museum (in the central estate in the village of Brykin Bor, 20 km from the village of Izhevskoye), where stuffed animals and birds are collected; Moreover, all of them are displayed on display in the form of a diorama. Sometimes you get the impression, especially if you look at the photographs (and I took almost all of them), that the animals are alive! :-)))
The reserve has a nursery where bison are raised and supplied to other regions and reserves. There is also a crane farm there, where they raise a wide variety of cranes (gray cranes, sandhill cranes, etc.), but the most valuable thing is the Siberian Crane (white crane), which in the whole world nests only here - wow! :-))) Although they also fly to other countries.
I took a boat ride on the Pra River - the view was like the Amazon! :-))) The fact is that the floods have flooded the area, and the trees are completely in the water - that’s why I remembered the Amazon (in a movie I once watched).
Spent the night at the reserve's hotel - in a large wooden house. The deputy director gave me the Red Book of the Ryazan Region, for which I am naturally very grateful to him.
In the same Spassky district there is the village of Kiritsy (about 55 km from Ryazan directly along the M5 highway to Chelyabinsk), where in the Derviz estate there is a children's health clinic for patients with bone tuberculosis. This is a real castle! By the way, everyone there calls him that. To be honest, I was stunned by the beauty I saw, because I could not imagine that in such a remote place you could see such beauty! :-))
Derviz S.P. - son of the builder of the Moscow-Kazan railway, being a wealthy person, could afford such luxury! :-) The estate was built in 1887-1889 by the famous architect Shekhtel. The ensemble of the estate quite organically combines pseudo-Gothic elements, ancient Russian tents and crenellated turrets - as a result, the entire structure looks like a cross between a Gothic castle and a Russian tower! :-)))))
Previously, there was everything here: a palace house, a horse yard, a church, suspension bridges through ravines, grottoes, a cascade of ponds. The estate has been restored for several years now, but they still cannot restore it completely. :-(((
I visited the village of Konstantinovo, the birthplace of Sergei Yesenin. A memorial house-museum of the poet was opened here in 1965. Yesenin was born in a different house, and this one was built in 1910 by his father on the site of the old one, which by that time was already dilapidated. Not far from it there is a nice “house with a mezzanine” that belonged to the local landowner L.I. Kashina, where Yesenin visited more than once and described it in the poem “Anna Snegina”. Now there is a museum here, which is called: the poem “Anna Snegina”.
And what gorgeous views of the Oka River from the high bank in Konstantinovo!
I went to the village of Poshupovo (about 50 km from Ryazan) and visited the St. John the Theologian Monastery. It was built at the end of the 17th century, but the very origin of the monastery dates back to the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th centuries, when monks came to these places to baptize pagans. They brought with them the miraculous icon of the Apostle John the Theologian - one of the shrines donated by the Church of Constantinople as a blessing to the newly enlightened Russian land. This image became the main shrine of the monastery. He saved many times from various troubles and adversities. According to legend, through prayer before the icon, cholera was stopped in surrounding towns and villages in 1848 and 1892, and in 1865 the fire in Poshchupov was stopped. Ivan the Terrible's wife Anastasia gave birth here while traveling along the Oka River.
But the most amazing of the legends takes us back to the distant year 1237, when Batu Khan, having ravaged Ryazan, approached the monastery with the intention of robbing and burning it too. Suddenly, on the approaches to Poshupovo, Batu and his military leaders were struck by blindness (alas, temporary!). Then, in a dream, an old man appeared to Batu (this was the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian himself) and commanded: “Lift me up!” Khan found the icon and bowed to it, after which he regained his sight. Naturally, he immediately abandoned the execution of his criminal plan and left his golden seal on the icon, which was kept by the monks for 416 years (in 1653, when the image was temporarily in the old Assumption Cathedral of the Ryazan Kremlin, it was removed to gild the large water-blessing cup) . And in those days, perhaps, there were no cooler symbols of power - whoever has the seal is the ruler! :-)))))
St. John the Theologian Cathedral was built in the second half of the 17th century. In 1901, according to the design of the Ryazan architect Tsekhansky I.S. built a bell tower 76 meters high of extraordinary beauty. The largest bell on it weighed 545 pounds (almost 9 tons)!
The monastery houses the relics of Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. George the Victorious and other saints. Father was so kind that he not only told about the monastery, but also took him to the building where the monks’ cells are located; showed arks with the relics of various elders.
I visited the village of Elatma: only 3.5 thousand inhabitants, and the first mention dates back to 1381, when Dmitry Donskoy bought the village from the Meshchera prince Alexander Ukovich! There are several versions of the origin of the name: 1. Associated with the name of the Meshchera princess Elat. 2. Finno-Ugric – “scorched place”. 3. Tatarskoe - “a lively, comfortable place to live”!
In May 1722, Peter the Great visited here while passing through the second Azov campaign. By the way, even then there were more than 3 thousand inhabitants in Elatma! In 1778, Elatma was made a district town of the Tambov province; at that time it was the most industrial city in the province - there were glass factories, linen factories and several brick factories.
At the end of the 19th century, about 8 thousand people already lived in Elatma, there were 14 churches, 2 mosques, a synagogue, a zemstvo hospital, a city bank, a tannery, a rope factory, a candle factory, and a printing house. The decline for the city came in 1924, when, during the next administrative reorganization, Elatma lost its city status, becoming part of the Kasimovsky district.
I would like to express my gratitude to Anatoly Alekseevich Yazykov, Gennady Viktorovich Titov, Sergei Konstantinovich Epikhin, Vladimir Alekseevich Surin and many other cordial and good people, who helped me see the amazing places of the Ryazan region!
Oh, damn it, what kind of nature is it in the Meshchera region - the soul is filled with some kind of animal subconscious joy when you see with your own eyes these lush green birch trees, steep cliffs with sandy beaches and sloping slopes, as if covered with green carpets, the blue expanse of rivers and lakes, especially in areas of spills. I would like to become a writer or poet and describe all this in order to at least give vent to my emotions, because a simple (purely informative) story does not free me from this charming captivity and does not allow the reader to fully experience the beauty of these places...
Go to this land, experience its beauty - you won’t regret it!..
A plant for processing non-ferrous and rare earth metals on the outskirts of Skopin. Stopped working around 2015. In the early fifties, on the outskirts of the small town of Skopin, the construction of a new plant for processing non-ferrous and rare earth metals began. A few years later, the enterprise became the largest of its kind in the USSR. A huge territory on which administrative buildings and workshops are located. As of fall 2019, they are actively demolishing...
Factories →
A small factory was engaged in the production and storage of feed for livestock and poultry. Registered in 1992, liquidated in 2003. The entire production includes an elevator, which is available for viewing. Inside the workshops, the equipment and production lines are intact; the plant’s products are scattered, which is why the site a large number of birds. There was no active security on the territory; there were dogs.
Culture →
Built in 1782 at the expense of the court councilor S. E. Sulmenev (husband of E. I. Chebotaeva). The church is in a dilapidated state. It is possible to climb to the roof of the temple, but be careful. In some places, floor tiles have been preserved. There is visible destruction inside. The dome is intact.
Culture →
The temple was built in 1700. It is in disrepair: headless, deprived of a dome, used for many years as a water pump, worn out by time. The heavy tank of the water pump caused the wall to crumble. The other walls don't inspire confidence either; trees grow through them. The facade decor is painted. In the 30s, the temple was closed; it housed the garage of the Kostino state farm. The head of the temple and the bell tier were also dismantled in order...
Culture →
In the south of the Ryazan land, 25 versts from the district town of Ryazhsk, on the left bank of the Khupta River, there once existed the village of Nikolskie Gai (Nikolo-Gai). The village got its name from the temple - the first known church, consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, was built here in 1678. However, less than a hundred years later, in 1766, landowner Anna Borisovna Poluekhtova built a new wooden church. A little over a hundred years later in 1889...
Factories →
The plant and the forest almost merged into one. Despite the fact that the place has been abandoned by people for quite some time, it is saturated with the smell of carrion due to a huge dump of bones in the northeast of the territory, cattle skins and bags of meat and bone meal remaining in the main building, and spoiled cans of stew in the underground part of the boiler room. Carefully! The smell attracts stray dogs in the warm season
Military →
Remains of a former military unit that ceased to exist in June 2009. Purpose - artillery and missile forces. On the territory there are barracks, headquarters, garages without equipment, an honor board with photographs, a gas station, a boiler room, and a punishment cell. Free access to all buildings. As of May 2018, no guards were seen.
Culture →
Information about the village of Vnukovo in the Ryazan region begins to appear in the second half of the 17th century, and already in 1676 the Transfiguration Church, then still wooden, was listed in the village. The church building that has survived to this day was built in 1797 (parish registers that were kept in the parish have been preserved since the 1780s). According to available references in modern sources, the church was built at the expense of the local landowner P. S. Kondyreva. In the 19th century to the parish...
IN mid-19th century, the village of Mokeevka appeared in the forests of Shilovsky district between Lake Kuzhikha and Lake Chudino. It was not marked by anything special, except that the people living in it were savvy and hardworking, so the village was prosperous. Residents did not think or guess that in the coming century they would become heroes of legends passed on in whispers from mouth to mouth.
After October revolution Mokeevka disappeared. Absolutely... Together with the population, houses, livestock. And it would be fine if she just disappeared. In those turbulent times, nothing like this happened. The strange thing was that the village was seen periodically. Residents of neighboring Nadezhdino will gather for fishing - there is Mokeevka, women will go to the swamp for cranberries - there is Mokeevka. And a food appropriation detachment came - there was no village. Like a cow licked it with its tongue. In the place where it should be there is an impassable thicket.
Once they sent a CHON detachment (a special purpose unit designed to fight enemies Soviet power) with a hundred sabers to deal with this ideologically harmful village. Squad according to all rules military science surrounded the enemy's location. They sent out reconnaissance. They wait for half an hour, an hour - there are no sentries. The commander with a dozen soldiers went on a sortie. And he also disappeared... In general, when the main detachment arrived, the Chonovites saw an absolutely incredible picture. The village stands where it should be. Laundry is drying in the courtyards, samovars are still warm in the huts. But there is not a single living creature - neither man, nor cattle, nor chicken, nor dog. Only the scouts and their commander are wandering around the courtyards in complete confusion. The authorities made several more attempts to clarify the situation. And all with the same success. After which they spat and announced: there was no trace of Mokeevka. And all the talk about a ghost village is ideological sabotage and undermining the authority of the Soviet government by kulaks and subkulak operatives.
The country is on lock
TO mysterious story We will definitely return to the village of Mokeevka. But first, let us remember that 200 years ago the Shilovsky region attracted the close attention of scientists as the possible location of the semi-mythical Artania - the city-state of the ancient Russians. Here is a quote from the Bolshoi encyclopedic dictionary: “Artania, Arsania, Arta, along with Kuyavia and Slavia, are one of the three centers of Ancient Rus', which existed in the 9th century and was mentioned by Arab and Persian geographers (al-Balkhi, al-Istakhri, Ibn Haukal, etc.). Some researchers identify A. with the territory of the Antes, others with Tmutarakan, and still others with the city of Ryazan. According to one version, this is where its name comes from – Arta – Arzya – Eruzyan – Ryazan.”
The main oddity is that not a single source left us a description ancient city, its streets, buildings, household utensils. In general, no specific data. The conclusion suggests itself: either strangers were not allowed into Artania (one of the translations is “a country on lock”), or all these are myths and legends that do not have factual evidence. According to some modern ethnographers, Artania was carefully protected from prying eyes, and they did it so skillfully that the idea of attracting some esoteric forces suggests itself.
In the intricacies of the “labyrinth”
What was stored in ancient Artania? There is a version that it was here that the most revered relics of the ancient Orthodox world were located: the first consecrated icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the legendary sword of Ares and even the Holy Grail. To be fair, it must be said that not everyone agrees that the mysterious city was located on Ryazan soil. And here, in the Ryazan region, other places of possible location of the “closed country” are given.
For example, Pitelinsky district. This is what the famous Ryazan amateur local historian Vladimir Gribov said about his search for Artania. Residents of one of the villages not far from the sources of the Pet River pointed him to a field with which a lot of people had long been associated mysterious phenomena. At first, Vladimir Vasilyevich did not notice anything unusual in this place. A field is like a field. I searched it up and down - no finds. I was just about to leave and suddenly, quite by accident, I came across a hefty stone on the very outskirts of this place. In appearance, it exactly coincided with the famous menhirs, repeatedly described in historical documents. It is turned into a strict tetrahedron, the top is pointed. Since pagan times, such stones have been placed in the belief that they accumulate the energy of the sun. And if you have certain knowledge, this energy can be used, among other things, to create impenetrable protection from prying eyes. Further - more... Behind the stone there was a whole chain of small ravines in which boulders were scattered, at first glance chaotically. Not a single path, not a single road nearby.
Already after a hundred steps, Vladimir Gribov felt slightly dizzy, and a moment later he realized that he was in a huge “labyrinth” - the stones and ravines were located in such a way that they twisted into a spiral! He decided to reach its center, but that was not the case - he walked through two ravines and found that he was again standing a few steps from the menhir. Another try - the same result. Perhaps somewhere here there was an entrance to the “secret city” forever hidden from prying eyes? There is one more fact confirming Vladimir Gribov’s version. Old-timers tell the story of Ataman Antonov, whose vanguard, during the suppression of a peasant rebellion, violently broke through from the Tambov region to the Pitelin region. With fighting, sweeping away the cordons of the Red Army, they still managed to break through. However, the Red Army soldiers still besieged the Antonovites in the area of the Pitelin forests. The most desperate ones made their way to the ravines and disappeared into the water...
Nettle didn't help
But let's return to modern Shilovo. Sergei Ivanovich Nikanov is one of the few who saw the legendary Mokeevka with his own eyes. “I wasn’t the only one who saw her,” he says. – In Nadezhdino, many people have been to Mokeevka, and more than once. In the early 30s, when collectivization was in full swing, the authorities again became interested in Mokeevka. They began dragging men and women from surrounding villages for interrogation. We were still just kids... My friend and I saw the village three times when we went fishing on Lake Chudino. True, they didn’t go into the huts - they were afraid. And when they told us at home, our parents hit us with nettles so much that they then took the tenth route around this place.” Parental nettle did not help. The mysterious Mokeevka sank into the soul of Sergei Nikanov.
You never dreamed of it!
“For twenty years there was not a word or breath about the village,” recalls Sergei Ivanovich. – They have already begun to forget about this story. But in the mid-60s, tourists stumbled upon it again. We went to Chudino - there was a village, and on the way back, when we wanted to get water from a well, we saw an impassable thicket. I myself went searching several times. And I saw Mokeevka three more times. But if I take my camera with me, I’ll end up wandering through the forest in vain. I’m already back in Shilovo and have stopped talking about it. They laugh at me - they think my grandfather has lied in his old age. But I still have old photographs, from the 20s. They show exactly the same Mokeevka. Then ethnographers managed to photograph the village and its inhabitants for the only time. Of course, this needs to be done seriously, but I’m not the same age anymore, and my health doesn’t allow me to run through forests and swamps.” Unfortunately, the format of a newspaper publication does not allow us to talk about many more mysterious places in the Ryazan region. There are their own anomalous zones in Shatsk, in Old Ryazan, at the Zhokin settlement in the Zakharovsky district. We will definitely return to this exciting topic in the near future. Well, I advise skeptics to remember the words of Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “There are many things in the world, friend Horatio, that your wise men never dreamed of.”
Prepared by Mikhail Kolker
Built in 1782 at the expense of the court councilor S. E. Sulmenev (husband of E. I. Chebotaeva). The church is in a dilapidated state. It is possible to climb to the roof of the temple, but be careful. In some places, floor tiles have been preserved. There is visible destruction inside. The dome is intact.
The temple was built in 1700. It is in disrepair: headless, deprived of a dome, used for many years as a water pump, worn out by time. The heavy tank of the water pump caused the wall to crumble. The other walls don't inspire confidence either; trees grow through them. The facade decor is painted. In the 30s, the temple was closed; it housed the garage of the Kostino state farm. The head of the temple and the bell tier were also dismantled in order...
In the south of the Ryazan land, 25 versts from the district town of Ryazhsk, on the left bank of the Khupta River, there once existed the village of Nikolskie Gai (Nikolo-Gai). The village got its name from the temple - the first known church, consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, was built here in 1678. However, less than a hundred years later, in 1766, landowner Anna Borisovna Poluekhtova built a new wooden church. A little over a hundred years later in 1889...
Information about the village of Vnukovo in the Ryazan region begins to appear in the second half of the 17th century, and already in 1676 the Transfiguration Church, then still wooden, was listed in the village. The church building that has survived to this day was built in 1797 (parish registers that were kept in the parish have been preserved since the 1780s). According to available references in modern sources, the church was built at the expense of the local landowner P. S. Kondyreva. In the 19th century to the parish...
The church is located in the former Staronikolskaya settlement. Nowadays, mostly summer residents rest nearby, but surprisingly the church is not completely abandoned. There are icons and candles inside, next to the wall that was once the altar. It's quite clean inside. The church itself is square, made of red brick. The roof has not been preserved, the painting has also been lost. There was no plan for a bell tower. Not guarded, not fenced, entry is free.
The building was built in 1864. Before this, there was a wooden church on this site. In the 20th century, the temple was closed, and then it was converted into a granary, which lasted until about the 60s. Later the building was completely abandoned. In the middle of the last century, the temple still had a dome, but it later collapsed. The building is a mess and piles of rubbish. There is zero security. The condition is in disrepair, although paintings on the walls have been preserved in some places. You can enter through...
The estate consisted of a manor house and industrial buildings located around it. The manor house was built in 1815 according to the design of the architect I. S. Gagin. Initially, the estate belonged to the merchants of the second guild, the Kazlinins. In 1815, the Kazlinins’ property was purchased at auction by D.K. Verein. His descendants owned the estate until 1894. Then it belonged to the merchant A.S. Zameshaev for a short time. In 1900, the estate was bought by...
The estate was built at the beginning of the twentieth century in the pseudo-Gothic style. It belonged to the merchant Sergei Postnikov. In Soviet times School No. 84 was located in this building. Since 1991, the school ceased to exist. Currently (July 2015) the building is abandoned. The interiors have not been preserved.